HP, Konica Minolta, Lexmark Printers Boast PictBridge Technology

Wireless capability on many office appliances, including printers, is becoming increasingly frequent in the marketplace and affordable for cost-conscious businesses. At the same time, the onslaught of low-priced digital cameras, also with wireless capabilities, has allowed small businesses to print photos without extra cables or the circuitous e-mailing of files. One such wireless connectivity option between printers and digital cameras is PictBridge, an industry standard introduced in 2003 from the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) for direct printing. It allows images to be printed directly from digital cameras to a printer, without having to connect the camera to a computer. The following is a list of printers offering PictBridge connectivity and the other features they offer midmarket companies.

Konica Minolta Magicolor 4650EN Color Laser Printer ($339.95)

The Magicolor 4650EN Laser Printer supports legal-size pages and a range of print media including plain paper, transparencies, sheet labels, envelopes and thick stock. It is well-suited for adding highlights to a spreadsheet, or producing in-house collateral such as brochures or newsletters. Its electrophotographic laser prints up to 9,600-by-600-dpi class with PhotoArt paper, and it achieves print speeds of up to 25 ppm black or color on letter-size paper. The printer comes standard with 256MB DIMM, Ethernet, parallel and PictBridge interfaces, and a 250-sheet input cassette with a 100-sheet multipurpose tray.

Lexmark X4875 ($62.99)

This color inkjet printer is good for basic office tasks-printing, scanning, copying and photo printing-with a maximum black (draft) print speed of up to 30 ppm. It features built-in 802.11b/g wireless LAN and USB 2.0, as well as a 2.4-inch color LCD display for control and status updates. Other features include automatic double-sided printing and the ability to reduce or enlarge documents or images from 25 percent to 400 percent and scan them to PDF format for archiving or e-mailing.

Brother MFC-795CW ($220.26)

This Energy Star-qualified all-in-one takes up minimal space by employing Brother's ink tube delivery system, where the ink cartridges do not have to be situated above the print head, allowing a lower profile end product. Also included is a built-in digital answering machine with full-duplex speaker phone and handset, and the printer offers print speeds at up to 35 ppm black and 28 ppm color. Businesses can also save time with unattended fax, copy or scan using the auto document feeder.

HP Photosmart A646 ($209.95)

Hewlett-Packard's latest compact photo printer allows direct printing from a user's camera-enabled cell phone via built-in Bluetooth and offers HP Original 110 Ink Cartridge compatibility as well as a 3.45-inch touch-screen CGD (color graphics) with TouchSmart control panel.

Canon Pixma MX870 ($178.69)

Various security features such as password-protected PDFs let businesses feel safer about creating and distributing their most confidential files, while the five-color ink system, consisting of four dye-based inks plus a pigment-based black ink, boasts 9,600-by-2,400 maximum color dpi. A built-in, fully integrated 35-sheet Auto Document Feeder and Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology round out the features.